Participants in criminal proceedings with an uncertain procedural status in the pre-revolutionary and Soviet periods

Subject of research: a comprehensive characterization of participants in criminal proceedings in pre-revolutionary Russia and the Soviet period, who were effectively involved in criminal case production but did not have a clearly defined procedural status in the law. The analysis focuses on figures such as witnesses ("investigative witnesses"), assistant investigators, and other individuals assisting in the investigation, the applicant and eyewitness at the stage of initiating a criminal case, as well as the suspect and victim during historical periods when their status remained inadequately or contradictorily regulated. The study examines the legal nature of these participants, the content and scope of their actual functions, the degree of their formalization in regulatory acts, and the impact of the uncertainty of their status on the realization of rights and legitimate interests of individuals and on the formation of subsequent criminal procedural institutions. Comparative-legal and historical-legal analysis of regulatory acts (Judicial Statutes of 1864, Criminal Procedure Code of the RSFSR of 1923 and 1960, etc.) and doctrinal sources; formal-legal method to identify gaps in the legal status of individuals. Novelty: the article systematically characterizes categories of participants in the criminal process who did not have direct legislative recognition of their status, analyzes their legal nature and the evolution of their functions from the second half of the 19th century until the end of the Soviet era. It is revealed that a number of important figures in the criminal process (for example, witnesses, assistant investigators, etc.) remained "unnamed" by the legislator for a long time, which led to discussions and was gradually overcome through the development of doctrine and legislative reforms. Conclusions: the absence of a clear procedural status for these individuals resulted in uncertainty regarding their rights and obligations and potential violations of legitimate interests. Nevertheless, individual "phantom" figures of the process persisted until the end of the Soviet period, and some problems continue into modern law, requiring further improvement of criminal procedural legislation.